Sunday Toughie 168 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 168

by Zandio

 

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

 

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

I found this a proper toughie last night, but as usual a night to sleep on it and I think all has become clear. Clues of a wide range of types and I found it quite tricky to limit myself to half of 16a and 14d clues.

Some fine surfaces today and a bonus nudge may be available if you ask

Good luck to Rory McIlroy – I think he has a 5d of securing his first Green Jacket

 

Here we go…

As it is a Prize puzzle I can only hint at a few and hope that will give you the checkers and inspiration to go further. I’ll be back just after the closing date with the full blog. Don’t forget to follow BD’s instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!

I hope I don’t have to redact any comments but I am not so new at this and don’t want to rock the boat. If in doubt, I’ll rub it out! I think that sentence is a bit redundant. You have all been so helpful in sorting out prior parsing failures, and I am sure I will need similar help again.

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also” Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious. Don’t forget the Mine of useful information that Big Dave and his son Richard so meticulously prepared for us.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions. Some hints follow: Remember the site rules and play nicely

Across

4a          One’s fifty and retired on Friday? (8)
The letter that looks like one and its plural ‘s, and from the clue and a reversal (retired) of one of our usual ons. Friday gets a? as although there are several small bodies of land with this name, I think Zandio is suggesting the fictional companion of Robinson Crusoe

10a       Taste shown by fancy sophisticate when rough set’s not around (9)
An anagram (fancy) of sophisticate, after an anagram (rough) of set is removed (not around)

12a       Put out more even when short of nothing (7)
A synonym of more even loses one of its letters that look like nothing

15a       In Cologne, one’s seen both sides of St Albert? (8)
Plural one’s in the language of Cologne go either side of the Saint abbreviation produce a well-known Albert

18a       Repeated romantic “I do” – I reprised cuddles reflexively (8)
Two indicators here, cuddles is a containment indicator and reflexively suggests look backwards. Repeated is the definition so look backwards in the rest of the clue

23a       Singing mass maybe, Jagger creating upheaval (7)
Two homophones (singing) of mass and Mr Jagger’s forename, create the sort of upheaval that Bangkok suffered recently

I was there…

27a       Unique monastic scripture substituted by former partner (9)
A synonym of monastic or withdrawn swaps the two letter abbreviation of scripture lessons for our usual former partner

29a       State of retro TV station once seen in article (6)
The former name of a TV station in one of the indefinite articles is reversed (retro)

 

Down

1d         Band’s experiment producing graphic material (8)
A type of material that demonstrates needlework “writing” from some bands or ribbons and to experiment

3d         Perhaps Italian’s lunch break’s up, he and I keeping alcohol-free (9)
The break’s in the teeth (that may make eating this problematic) are reversed (up in a down clue) followed by HE and I from the clue, that contain two letters that indicate abstinence from alcohol

6d         Overlooking odd posts, valued X as sound (5)
The even letters (overlooking odd posts) of valued and the letters that look like the Arabic numerals that equate to the Roman X – Nothing to do with Elon Musk and his rebranded Twitter

8d         Was frolicking Member ousted by Liberals turned over? (6)
A synonym of frolicking swaps the designation of a Member of Parliament for two Liberal abbreviations

16d       Change schools, having lost child’s focus with speech suppressed? (9)
A synonym of schools loses the letter at the focus of child and adds a word for one whose speech is suppressed

19d       Barking tends not entirely to come under E6, that’s clear (7)
A nice surface – Barking is not actually in the E6 postal area (it is next door to E6 in IG11) but for the purposes of the clue it is an anagram indicator – most of an anagram of tends (not entirely) comes under E from the clue and a Roman 6. I hope that’s clear

24d       One might find even letters written in emails dear? (5)
An all-in-one/&lit to finish – even letters of two words would be one who finds everything too expensive for his purse

Compiler

Zandio

 

Could new readers please read the Welcome Post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.
As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment.
Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.
If you don’t understand, or don’t wish to comply with, the conventions for commenting on weekend prize puzzles then save yourself a lot of trouble and don’t leave a comment

---

I meant to post this on my first April Blog, but I was suffering from a wee virus. The excellent Paul Simon retrospective on the telly last night reminded me;

That’s All Folks…